Claims wife Rumana cheated on him; her friend says doctors in India found grievous injuries to cornea, retinae of both eyes
Police yesterday arrested Hasan Sayeed Sumon, who tortured and damaged the eyes of his wife Rumana Manzur, an assistant professor of Dhaka University, 10 days ago.
Sumon was arrested at his relative’s house in the capital’s Mugda area around 2:10pm, soon after he came back to Dhaka from his hideout in Chittagong, said Md Monirul Islam, deputy commissioner of Detective Branch (DB South), at a press briefing in DB headquarters on Minto Road.
Just two hours before the arrest, the High Court had summoned police officers concerned to explain their failure in catching Sumon.
In the press briefing at DB headquarters, Sumon denied the allegation of torturing his wife.
He alleged that Rumana got involved in an extra marital affair with Iranian national Navid Taher Dween during her stay in Canada on Commonwealth Scholarship at British Colombia University. Rumana swooped on him when he deleted her paramour from her Facebook friend list, he claimed, adding that he was just trying to protect himself.
“I am almost 80 percent visually impaired. When she attacked me my glasses fell down and I couldn’t see anything. I don’t know what happened later,” Sumon claimed.
Replying to journalists, Sumon said, “I took care of our daughter when she was in Canada. I did not have the slightest idea that she had been cheating on me all this time.”
He also placed an example of Rumana’s cheating saying, “A few days after her return from Canada, we decided to commit suicide together and managed 192 sedatives for the purpose. While I took 110 tablets and landed in LabAid Hospital in a critical condition, she kept from living up to the plan.”
At a city hospital a couple of days ago, Rumana told the media that her husband pushed his fingers into her eyes and then dragged her by hair on the floor. She also claimed that he gnawed on her nose, face and throat during the June 5 incident at her parents’ house in Dhanmondi where they had been living for six years, since Rumana conceived her only daughter.
A case was filed against Sumon with Dhanmondi Police Station on June 6.
Rumana also alleged that her husband used to frequently assault her during their 10-year conjugal life. He beat her up several times on her return from Canada on May 12.
Sumon got furious when Rumana decided to continue her study in Canada, said Rumana on Monday, adding, “But I tolerated everything considering the future of my daughter.”
On Tuesday, Rumana was sent to Sankara Nethralaya, a medical research foundation in Chennai, India.
Ruman’s relatives and colleagues, who went to India with her, told The Daily Star last night that doctors found grievous injuries and irrevocable damages to both her eyes’ cornea and retinae.
Different human rights bodies, including the National Human Rights Commission, and Dhaka University teachers expressed their concern over the brutality on the DU teacher.
National Human Rights Commission in a statement yesterday said people accused in such incidents should be given exemplary punishment according to law.
In protest of the attack on Rumana Manzur, a solidarity meeting was held at Dhaka University (DU) with participation of students and teachers of different universities, cultural organisations, human rights activists and different left leaning students’ organisations.
-With The Daily Star input
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